GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION – General Principles

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1407.00000 – GENERAL LEGAL PRINCIPLES; STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION
1407.01000 – General Principles

PERB follows judicial authority and general rules of statutory construction, looking first to the plain meaning of the statutory language, affording the words their ordinary and usual meaning and giving meaning to every word of the statute, if possible, to avoid a construction that makes any word surplusage or ascribes to the Legislature the commission of a meaningless act. Only where the plain meaning of the statute is unclear will the Board turn to other sources to discern legislative intent, such as the legislative history or the wider historical circumstances of the statute’s enactment.